Confusion surrounds USdollars 6m tourism pitch

TAIPEI: The Tourism Bureau is inviting agencies to pitch for its NTdollars 200 million (about USdollars 6 million) account, bringing to an end a decade of inactivity caused by insufficient funds. But many agencies are giving it the cold shoulder because they only learned about the pitch two weeks before the June 8 deadline. The problem was that the bureau didn't go down the normal route of requesting specific agencies to make creative and strategic recommendations. Instead, it simply posted a message on an official web site, allowing any interested parties to put forward proposals. The bureau, however, defended its methods. "Our request for proposals is according to government regulations," said C.H. Tuo, director of the international division, Tourism Bureau. The agencies are not only upset over not being notified directly, they are also dissatisfied with the fact that they must make nearly completed proposals for a multi-market campaign in just a few weeks. An account manager of one of Taipei's top 10 agencies said: "They want a complete corporate identity strategy, a Taiwan song in three languages - Mandarin, English and Japanese - and storyboards for 15 to 30 minute videos. That's just the creative." But not everyone was caught off guard by the bureau's invitation. Roughly half of Taiwan's top-10 agencies are believed to be pitching, including Ogilvy & Mather, McCann-Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, DY&R and Leo Burnett. Some agencies, like Saatchis, have been doing background research on top of general preparation for a pitch following news reports some months ago that the Government was going to increase its tourism promotion budget to try to turn Taiwan into an international tourist destination. Said Neil Hardwick, CEO of Saatchis Taiwan: "When you read in the newspaper that the government is allocating NTdollars 200 million for the promotion of tourism, it follow that there might be a pitch." The pitch coincides with the launch of a Government Information Office image campaign to spruce up the island's international with the slogan, "Great People from a Small Island". The series of television and print ads was developed by Everbeauty - the advertising arm of the Evergreen Group, which has wide-ranging business interests from an airline to a hotel chain.

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